By now it is well known that incoming Senate
Majority Leader, Trent Lott (Racist) Mississippi recently spewed forth
with his true
feelings while praising fellow racist Strom Thurmond. This was followed
quite appropriately by a pitiful
non-apology aimed at deflecting some of the criticism he received soon
after the imbecilic statement.

The catharsis:"I
want to say this about my state," Lott said last Thursday. "When Strom
Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it," he said
to applause. "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we
wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."

The apology:"A
poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embrace the
discarded policies of the past," Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said in
a statement Monday. "Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize
to anyone who was offended by my statement."

"In 1998 and 1999, Lott was criticized
after disclosures that he had been a speaker at meetings of the Council
of Conservative Citizens, an organization formed to succeed the segregationist
white Citizens' Councils of the 1960s. In a 1992 speech in Greenwood, Miss.,
Lott told CCC members: 'The people in this room stand for the right principles
and the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction, and our
children will be the beneficiaries.'"

"After a fiery speech by Mr. Thurmond
at a campaign rally in Mississippi for Ronald Reagan in November 1980,
Mr. Lott, then a congressman, told a crowd in Jackson, 'You know, if we
had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today'."

So where do we
go from here?Al Gore
called for him to be censured by the Senate. Daschle wimped out by
saying, "[He's sure Lott wishes he could take back what he said]" - (C-Span
Dec 09,2002). Even Right wing journalists Andrew
Sullivan and Bill
Kristol expressed outrage over such lapses in brain functioning. (Note:
Sullivan also notes the unexpected turnout of African-American voters for
Senator Landrieu (D) Louisiana in a run-off Senate election the day after
Lott's confession.)

Okay, so some people are letting Lott have
it. Fine. My concern is how to rid our government of him and his ilk. Let's
look first at the make-up of Mississippi. African-Americans account for
36.3%
of Mississippi's population . Compare this to the percentage of blacks
nationwide at only 12.5%. Indeed, they are a particularly powerful political
force in Mississippi. So you might ask, "How could one of the states most
densely populated by African-Americans produce one of the most transparent
racists as a multi-term senator?" Paul Krugman suggests that suppression
of the black vote is one reason:

"Indeed, this year efforts to suppress
nonwhite votes were remarkably blatant. There were those leaflets distributed
in black areas of Maryland, telling people they couldn't vote unless they
paid back rent; there was the fuss over alleged ballot fraud in South Dakota,
clearly aimed at suppressing Native American votes. Topping it off was
last Saturday's election in Louisiana, in which the Republican Party hired
black youths to hold signs urging their neighbors not to vote for Mary
Landrieu."

The Fact of the matter is that African-Americans
nationwide tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats (traditionally in
the 85-90% range). Thus, if the black population in Mississippi were sufficiently
motivated to vote and simultaneously protected from republican lies and
other disenfranchisement techniques, Democrats would be unbeatable in this
state and others in the south. (Those states are Louisiana, Georgia and
South Carolina. More on this later.)

Tactic:
Looking forward, here's what has to take place. C-Span was kind enough
to put the entire "Lott's an admitted racist" debacle on videotape. The
next time Lott is up for reelection, a clip of his "support for segregation"
speech should be played ad nauseum in regions of the state dominated by
African-Americans. The same tactic should be used within various African-American
strongholds across the nation. The ad should have a tagline asking if this
is the person that [the targeted voters] want determining the agenda for
the US Senate and specifying that this will be the case if republicans
are voted back into the senate. And don't worry about stirring up the racist
white vote with this tactic either. They will vote regardless. We have
to concern ourselves with motivating our base and not with the possibility
of motivating the opposition's. Once again Paul
Krugman remarks:

"And yes, there are political implications.
In the midterm elections, Democratic candidates carefully avoided doing
anything to mobilize the black vote, fearing that this would just encourage
turnout by rural whites. But the rural whites turned out anyway, while
blacks didn't. In Louisiana, black turnout — the result of a determined
get-out-the-vote operation, perhaps helped by Mr. Lott's remarks — was
the key to Ms. Landrieu's unexpected victory. Might I suggest that this
tells us something?"

In addition, If republicans refuse to take
away Lott's position as Senate Majority Leader, thus implicitly showing
support for Lott and his agenda (Since the Majority Leader is the primary
force that sets the Senate's agenda), then that could be used in conjunction
with the nationwide, anti-republican ads. And don't forget that such vitriol
also tends to tip independents/undecideds in the opposite direction.